


The Shot Heard 'Round Hope County

by NovemberVenom



Category: Far Cry 5, MCSM, Minecraft: Story Mode - Fandom
Genre: A wankfest of dramatic violence with characters from a minecraft game in a far cry game, Cassie Rose makes a better john seed than john seed, F/F, Far Cry 5 AU, Gore, Implied Child Abuse, MCSM Far Cry 5 AU, Sorry Lukas :')
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-14
Updated: 2018-10-11
Packaged: 2019-07-12 06:45:38
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15989849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NovemberVenom/pseuds/NovemberVenom
Summary: Jesse's been called to the church of Fall's End to face Cassie Rose, youngest of the Rose family, at last. Her hopes are as low as the setting sun, sheltering itself beneath the horizon to save its rays from the brewing chaos.





	1. A Shot Heard 'Round Hope County

**Author's Note:**

> I have a habit of creating an MCSM AU for every new game I start, first Fallout, now Far Cry. This scene stuck out to me greatly in the game, and I had to get this AU version out of my system. 
> 
> This is extremely violent and includes gore as well as implied child abuse. Those of you who have already played Far Cry 5, you know exactly what you're getting into.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> By The Rued Gate Which Started The Flame  
> Our Flag In March's Breeze Was Burned  
> There, Once Embattled, Now Scarred We Stood  
> When She Fired The Shot Heard 'Round Our World

Cassie Rose had called, and Jesse decided to answer. 

When she opened the door to the church of Fall’s End, Jesse expected a sermon. She expected Cassie Rose, standing like her older brother at the podium with her arms open unfurled like angel’s wings, beholding false blessings unto a cluster of unwilling townspeople who hadn’t been lucky enough to escape. Giving her friends the pre-tellings of the scarring they’d soon face at the hand of Cassie Rose herself. Warning them of the sins she would project onto them as she had onto Jesse.

Instead, she was met with the butt of a rifle slamming into her forehead, The soft light of a slowly progressing sunset dissolved as her head hit the concrete, becoming as fuzzy and dark as her highest hopes.

\---

For a moment, Jesse thought that the pain on her bosom was the simple ache of remorse and fear. She was wrong. A buzzing like angry wasps became apparent, Jesse she realized the pain was pinpointed. With its progression all the world's features finally returned to existence, fog clearing for Jesse to see Cassie Rose was smiling down on her. 

Jesse gasped, jolting upwards but restrained by the force of a boot pushing her head to the floor. Another figure towered above, pointing his rifle downward. Jesse grunted and gasped, lunging for Cassie's arm and grabbing just below the shoulder. 

Cassie jolted too, her eyes shifting to meet Jesse's as she halted her work. They flashed with amusement, but it dissolved into anger.

“Hold _still._ It's supposed to say ‘Wrath’, not… ‘rat’.” She scoffed. “But that's not a bad idea. It wouldn't be inaccurate.” 

Jesse's grip tightened at the sting of the incisions, still panting, cursing, but Cassie ignored it, focusing intently on Jesse's desecration. She knew now what was taking place; the war was on its last leg, but now began the final battle as so their last had ended. It was with a single word: Wrath. 

“At our last meeting, I don't believe we were able to discuss what all of this really means, so let me remind you.” The desecrator smiled, cocking her head at her own exhausted ritualistic words. “Sin must be exposed so it may be absolved. You, Jesse… you're just like a little rat, always cowering from the light. But when we hide our sin, we hide ourselves.” 

“That's not true.” Jesse rasped,

Cassie continued to ignore her. She pushed harder, leaning closer. “Now you're in my claws, and you will not hide any longer. Your true self will spill out on this floor for everyone to see.” 

The buzzing stopped, but the sting of it lingered. The weight was lifted from Jesse’s body as Cassie grinned, rising and backing away sporadically, framing her fingers to envision only Jesse in her view. “I've waited a very long time for this. Look at you! It's perfect.” She then raised her arms, bent at the elbows but spread wide like they would have been in the preaching Jesse imagined. Jesse was beheld to them like a prize. “She’s finally one of us, ladies and gentlemen.” 

She struggled to sit up. Her head almost refused to raise, but mental objections flooded her mind quicker than anything else. So dearly she wanted to shout and curse, but something stopped her. It had a name but refused to call itself fear. 

“Well then,” Cassie turned on her heels, facing the podium and those gathered around it. “At last, let's begin!” 

The grisly man who had knocked her out now pulled her up forcefully, dragging her towards the podium. Her gaze flew around the room, finally adjusting, finally taking it in. 

It was nearly vacant of familiar faces. Instead, few cult members sat scattered among the pews. Some smiled at her. Bastards. 

It only figured. Cruising into town warily, it was hard to ignore the slightest shift in the closed curtains of store windows. Difficult not to notice the leering, wide eyes of the people as they watched from their windows and prayed. Prayed because their deputy had finally answered the call for atonement, high noon had long passed, and the town was far too small for both Jesse and Cassie Rose to reign. Like the titans they would clash, destroying all in their blind wrath so mystical it may as well had been legend. 

And so it was, because Jesse was human, and so was Cassie, and the last thing their stories were was the black-and-white complex of the good sheriff slaying the bandit in a dusty black coat with a single bullet glinted under an unrelenting sun. 

But sometimes? It damn well seemed that way. 

Wounds ran deep, visible or non, and in recent months all that fueled their driving force had been the flow of blood. Rushing like a river, eroding away the memories of a life that wasn't peril or war, a solution that wasn't bloodshed. It clawed away at every possible form of protestantism like a rearing beast, staining the pages of holy scriptures red as to make their meanings indistinguishable. A concept, now only to be harnessed. The slaughter was a scalpel cutting at the complexity and value each life held, turning it obsolete in the name of whatever righteousness was behind the kill.

Jesse's banks were strong against the currents of that river, but Cassie's had faded through the years. The cracked wood and bloodstained carpets of the Rose family home told her that. The pain and raw anger which consumed her as she spoke of that home told a story of its own. Then there was that look in her eyes, like a far off gaze, yet eerily bright. 

Jesse was hoisted forward. It was time.

This wasn’t going to be like the confessions or baptisms at home, and she knew it all too well. It was atonement; a new breed, preached to her in the shaking words of the scarred.

The sun was angled perfectly on the horizon so that its beams glared like spotlights through the windows, highlighting the scrawled graffiti on the church walls which read of sin, gleaming on the floors to give the church a comforting light of amber. It would have been a lovely evening for a real sermon. All the more lovely if her friends were there all their own wills, but the color drained from Jesse's face as she surveyed who Cassie had gathered for atonement. 

Each of them stood hunched, a cultist holding the barrel of a gun to each of their heads. First was Ellegaard; her brown curls shone beautifully in the light, outshone by the blood and rips splattered over her flannel. If the stains had been dried dirt or that of grease, it would have been a familiar sight. She wouldn't look Jesse in the eye. All Ellegard gave was a stifled whisper, so silent the drop of a pin could have overshadowed it. 

“I’m sorry.” 

Then Lukas. his jacket was tied around the waist, leaving him completely exposed, small gut and all. Every inch of him was coated in sweat topped with streaks of blood, blood which dripped from his sin displayed for all to see: ‘GREED’, clawed into his chest just as Cassie had clawed into her. There was an unfamiliar look his eye as he glanced Jesse up and down. Underneath that look was cold, unbridled terror. 

Lastly, there was Gabriel. The pastor, missing his own jacket as well. A wound on his breast dripped with scarlet, but he gave no indication of suffering. The pastor's face was stone, not blank so much as it was still and determined, giving warning to the self-controlled wrath of a peaceful man. His fingers trembled over the bible he held, and the the look flickered when Jesse met his eye. 

Cassie was a coward. She was cruel, heartless, and sick. Jesse hated her then she hated her even more as her thoughts stirred. 

Lukas and Ellegard were pushed forward, creating a malformed semicircle around Cassie and Gabriel with Jesse between them. Cassie grabbed her own bible- a book of Rose, written and manufactured in the cult’s favor -hitting it against Gabriel’s wound and tearing his own bible from his hands, throwing it to the floor. An expression of dominance. His grip was loose as the new book fell into his hands, bleached leather smeared with red, nearly slipping from his fingers.

Jesse’s stomach to churned with sickness, but she remained still. Every shift, every step echoed within the walls of the church, raising the hairs on her arms. She wanted to thrash, to scream, to curse and yell, but the temptations were in vain, restrained by more than just the impending barrel of a gun. 

There was no getting out of this, Jesse realized. No grand escape like there’d been time and time before. There they were, in the dragon’s nest, Lukas first to face the beast. Yet, the girl glowered at Jesse instead. 

“A few friendly faces always makes these things easier, doesn’t it?” 

Jesse continued to bite back protests, but the sparks of wrath were undeniable.

Cassie positioned herself behind the pastor, clasping Gabriel’s shoulder, looking over his other at Lukas. Her grip was as tight as Gabriel’s now was on the book, commanding, desperate if one looked hard enough. She spoke softly into his ear. “Repeat these words as I say them. Our devoted…” 

Gabriel remained silent, staring angrily at nothing. He was jabbed with a 10mm at his shoulder but did not react. 

 

“We are gathered here to bare witness.” 

There was a long, long pause. Gabriel looked over his shoulder, not quite as angry as he’d been a second before, his face instead absorbed in solumness and thought. “Don’t do this, Cassie.” He offered her an equal softness. “This isn’t the answer. Please.” 

Cassie sighed. She let go of Gabriel’s shoulders, taking a step back and nodding to the cultist holding him at gunpoint. Jesse’s heart skipped a beat. She shouldn’t have been as relieved as she was when the man instead raised the gun, striking the pastor with the butt of it at full force. Gabriel fell roughly, sideways on the hardwood floor. 

Jesse couldn’t take it, “Cassie, stop this!”

Apparently, Ellegard couldn’t either. “You bitch!” She lunged for Cassie, struggling forcefully against a cultist holding her back. The woman was slammed in the head with the same gun, knocked to the ground with Gabriel. 

If she hadn’t looked down for a moment longer, Jesse would have missed it. Weakly, Gabriel pushed the book of Rose across the floor, grabbing his gray bible, nearly cradling it. It was the same bible he’d held when they met, when he rescued her from the ride to Cassie’s Gate. 

The same bible he’d pulled a revolver from on that night, shooting her captor, saving her from a death sentence. 

“Now, now! Let’s try this again.” Cassie laughed as they gathered their bearings, smiling her wicked smile.

Jesse checked on Lukas beside her, the both of them spared from chaos thus far. His eyes were wide with horror, just as hers were, but settled on anger once again as the other two came to their feet drained further of dignity.

As Gabriel stood up fully, Cassie grabbed his nape like that of a hound, holding it just as tightly as she had his shoulder. As if she’d never smiled, Her face was darkness.

“Our devoted, we are gathered here to bare witness” She no longer whispered, growling the words. 

Gabriel repeated through gritted teeth. “Our devoted… We are gathered here to bare witness.” 

“To those willing to atone for their sins.” 

Gabriel repeated, as told. 

_‘Willing’ my ass_ , A thought wriggled through her pooling dread. 

“Will you, Lukas Porter, place your hand upon the word of Rose?” 

The words crawled from Gabriel’s throat, yanked out against his will by the force of fear. Anger, Understanding of their fate. It was hopeless and he knew it- They all knew it, and there was no fighting it. “Will you, Lukas Por-” 

“N- No.” Lukas stuttered in his resolute tone. He missed the discrete signals of warning from Gabriel. “I’m not giving in. I’m not standing for this crap!” 

She loved lukas as a dear friend, but just like the rest of them he was too goody two-shoes and stubborn for his own good. His name was on the tip of her tongue but still Jesse held it, watching. 

Cassie let go of Gabriel in a spell of still, silent fury. She pushed him aside, and with barely a signal one of the men holding Jesse left his position, passing in front of her to assume a spot at Lukas’s side where he clutched the blonde’s arm. Lukas struggled against the grip. 

It was the third greatest mistake of Cassie’s mob, as there was now the significant lack of a barrel against her neck.

The madwoman approached him personally, standing but a foot away from his resentful, struggling form. She gestured her fingers over his chest where the wounds carved like letters still glistened with blood. 

“Greed.” She spoke something smug. “Always thinking of yourself, aren’t you, Lukas?” 

Lukas stiffened. Something had shifted within him, pushed to the breaking point with those few words. There was a dark, vehement look in his eyes, then a gurgle in the back of his throat before he spit in her face, pulling harder against his captors, and his words which were spit as much as his saliva sent a hot chill up Jesse’s spine. 

“Suck my dick and balls, you bitch!” 

Cassie blinked in surprise. A hand rose to her cheek, touching where his saliva had made contact. She nodded slightly, cracking a smile, wiping the wet from her face. 

She visibly restrained rage as her hands were placed lightly upon Lukas’s shoulders. almost parental, almost like that of a petty sibling as she wiped the spit onto his shoulder. She looked him in the eye before pulling him in aggressively, her mouth at his ear, her whispered words a furious yet inaudible venom. Atonement was at a standstill, The camel’s back yet to break. 

His struggling persisted, then slowed, soon slowing to a stop like the prey of a snake falling limp in submission, eyes widening as his gusto weakened with every coarse whisper. Slowly Cassie receded, still holding onto Lukas’s shoulders. 

Lukas’s anger was gone. Huffs of rage had become shuddering breaths, eyes wide like saucers now as he looked to the floor shaking his head ever so slightly. 

Cassie had the gall to ask in a comforting tone, “Lukas?” 

“You… you can’t-” If his hands had not been held at his sides, they would have been digging into his hair, grabbing it by the fistfull. His breathing slowed with his loosening body. His gaze crept up to Cassie’s once again.

Lukas broke. 

“Yes.” he choked. “I’ll… I’ll atone.”

Cassie smiled again. Her grin grew wider than it had been before during their short time in the church. She held out her hand to a cultist without looking, then in her palm was placed a hunting knife. Face unchanging she raised it at Lukas, stepping towards him. Lukas pulled back, breath quivering as he shook his head, pleading pleas which fell on on all but the deaf ears of Cassie.

Jesse’s heart raced faster, blood steaming in some places but freezing in others, “Cassie- Lukas, No!” she shrieked. Like so many other things the protest was in vain. 

Lukas was held down by each arm on the floor, still hopeful that his pleas would come through to any of his captors, still hopeful to spark a shred of mercy in Cassie, but Cassie felt no mercy. No, even worse- this _was_ her mercy. She gave by taking, restored bonds by spilling blood. Lied to herself, relished in the thrill of a hunt. 

She leapt on Lukas with the vigor of a cougar, plunging the dagger into him.

Jesse could have warned him. She could have stopped this, volunteered first, said yes before him. 

Jesse’s sight was obscured, but still she watched in horror with the rest of them. Ellegaard screamed defiance, as did Jesse. In a statement of Yes came a cacophony of No.

It was exactly what Cassie wanted. 

Lukas’s sobbing pleas became screams. Lukas thrashed, his legs kicking beneath him taking no effect on Cassie’s efforts, his howls of pain the loudest among the dissonance, silencing out the rest in a matter of seconds. It was a primal noise unlike anything she heard before; Since Jessie’d arrived in the county, she’d heard a lot of things that left their mark on her memories- gunfire in a warzone, screaming then silence, the demonic caterwaul of a rabid raccoon -this wasn’t like any of those things. It was the wail of the damned, every second of the piercing cry clawing its way from Lukas’s throat as the flesh was cut and torn from his chest spilling blood across the floor which seeping into the wood. 

Jesse’s heart stopped. As Cassie finished her work, Lukas gave one final horrific scream. It told of nothing but pain and suffering, nothing but spilled blood, nothing but failed pleas for mercy. It told of every one of Cassie’s own sins against the people, all who’d died at her hand and all who would die if she wasn’t stopped. It echoed off the walls and windows of the church and into their hearts, igniting something that wasn’t there before. 

It pushed Jesse’s wrath further. 

That was Cassie’s second biggest mistake. 

“ _YES!_ ” Cassie rose from what seemed to be Lukas’s corpse, holding the torn strip of skin which read ‘ _GREED_ ’ like a prize. Her arms were completely coated in blood, the scarlet dotting her face as well. 

Jesse’s mind wanted her to scream. Her stomach wanted her to vomit. Her heart wanted her to kill. 

They stood defeated as Cassie gloated of “The power of yes”. Gabriel has been released from any grip, holding his bible loosely, staring. Ellegard shook with fury at the echoing, gleeful cheers of Cassie, but did nothing. The woman grimaced as the strip of Lukas’s skin was stapled to the wall. 

Lukas lay on the floor, curled into himself. 

He shook violently. Even at distance, Jesse spotted the tear tracks glistening over his cheeks in the warm light. He was just as coated in blood as Cassie, more so- His chest heaved, gushing more scarlet liquid from a horrific wound, every breath bringing further whimpers of pain. Lukas’s hand hovered over the wound, balling into a fist then pounding the floor. 

A louder sob from him melted the ice in Jesse’s blood. She felt sick. 

Cassie beamed down at him with pride, placing a hand on his shoulder. “You’re free now, Lukas. Can you believe it?” 

He looked back at her, eyes glazed over. He tried to produce another sob but failed, whimper sounding in its place as his head hit the floor. He curled into himself further. Before his eyes closed, he peered at Jesse. 

After everything, there was still pleading in his eyes. 

Strings of insults, protests, and denial stormed and pooled in Jesse’s mind, jamming them into a blank state. She wanted to fight. She wanted to die. 

Cassie had since wondered to the podium, gathering her bearings with a cheery fervency while drying the blood from her arms. She hummed some stupid song Jesse couldn’t remember the name of, replacing the tune with a series of heavy breaths as she turned to look at Jesse. 

She strided forward, grabbing the nape of Gabriel once again. They each stood in the eye of the storm now, walls on either side turbulent with potential chaos. The shaking breaths of Lukas were still audible in the building, his screams still echoing in Jesse’s mind as if they hadn’t ended. 

Cassie’s gaze was solemn. Jesse wasn’t taking it for a moment longer. 

“Will you, Jesse Taber, place your hand upon the word of Rose?” 

There was little hesitation as Gabriel repeated the words. Still, he growled them. 

“To renounce your sins and admit your transgressions?” Cassie said hopefully. 

“To renounce your sins and… Admit your transgressions.” His voice was deeper this time, fury still imbedded in his words. Unexpectedly, Gabriel was urged a step closer. A softer, friendlier look flashed on his face when he glanced down at the bible he held out to Jesse, then back at the girl herself. “Say yes, Jesse.” he pleaded. “Say /yes./” 

Cassie chimed in. “It’s just one word, sweetheart.”

Jesse understood. She nodded at Gabriel, sliding her hand over the surface of the book, his heavy breathing fueling the growing chills of adrenalin up her spine. 

Cassie looked her up and down, a her terrible smile making its return.

Jesse she flexed her fingers. This was Cassie’s biggest mistake. 

Jesse flipped the book open at full speed, the indented cylinder of the revolver inside glinting brighter in the dying light as she grabbed it, firing as quickly as possible. 

She missed. The bullet grazed Cassie’s neck, crashing into the stained glass window behind her, shattering it in a shot so great it must have been heard across the county. Chaos erupted, yells and commands from cultists and resistance alike filing the room. 

“GUN!” 

 

“Shoot, Shoot! GO!” 

There was a whirlwind of bodies around her. The cultists released them, two grabbing Cassie and carrying her down the aisle then out the door, while the others reached for their guns and poised to fire. A man stopped in front of Jesse with an assault rifle, loading it as he looked over his shoulder. “Get cassie to the ranch! We’ll take care of thi- UGH!” 

He was body slammed by a furious Ellegaard, who tore the weapon from his arms and unloaded it into his chest. Jesse ducked behind a pew, reaching for her own .45/70 latched onto her back, aiming and firing several bullets at the doorway to the church. Two figures fell to the floor, but not Cassie. She’d already made it to the road. Jesse watched Gabriel sprint down the steps, gunning down straggling cultists with a rifle he’d grabbed from a corpse. 

“What are you doing?” Ellegaard grabbed her arm roughly, pulling Jesse up. “We’re not letting the bitch get away- Go!” 

Jesse took a few strides before looking back. “What about Lukas?” 

Ellegaard was already shifting toward his near-lifeless form. “Don’t worry, we’ll take care of him, just _go!_ ” 

I was a moment of which there was supposed to be no time for thoughts, adrenalin tearing down their structure before they had the chance to begin. The air of the freshly darkened summer evening wet and cool, a crispness of the air giving warnings of a coming fall. It was the perfect time to hunt, just like the capture parties sent after Jesse had always spoken of. 

But for just a moment, gunning down faceless cultists with no further thought, Jesse felt like she understood the shared sin of Wrath between herself and Cassie.  
Cassie'd provided the best example, after all. It was a lack of empathy or mercy. A complete bloodlust against even the weak and innocent, topped with a disregard of life. 

Jesse’s wrath was borne of something different, though. It rose in an inferno from a place of warmth. It took love and twisted it into something sharp and gnarled. A weapon. As she hopped into the mounted gun of a truck, she thought of Lukas. As she fired bullet upon bullet in the heat of pursuit, she thought of Ellegaard and Gabriel, Stella and Petra who she screamed at over a radio. 

And in their final showdown, Jesse was sure, she wouldn’t be thinking of anyone but herself.


	2. Do Not Go Gentle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Go swiftly, go furiously, rage against the dying of the light.

The roads were chaos. 

Headlights danced in the dim of evening as resistance cars filed out in a metal mass, two or three of them progressing from a desperate crawl to speeding down the road as their chase began. It was predator chasing a predator or prey chasing prey. Regardless, someone was going to die that night. Engines roared valiantly, tires complaining below the engines on the abused roads of Hope County. 

A shot rang out from behind their truck, exploding into the driver’s side window completely shattering it. Gabriel hung out the window, wide eyes unmagnified with a lack of eyeglasses. “Dammit, they flanked us!” 

Three white pickups revealed themselves as the tail truck of the resistance’s convoy spun out of control, blood on the windshield as it reeled from the road. As they came to view, the furious eyes of another mounted gunner met Jesse’s. She didn’t look back at Gabriel. “Just fucking drive faster- don’t let the bitch get away!” 

She hated how aggressive she sounded. She hated the wrath she felt. She tried to ignore the feelings as bullets pelted into the chest of the other gunner, as he hung lopsided on the seat as the drivers yelled obscurities at Jesse as well as their dead comrade, voices swallowed by the engines and the wind. 

Cassie could not be blamed for this. Cassie only pointed out the wrath, tapped into it when she’d declared Jesse’s sin that night in the bunker, when she’d carved it into her skin. Jesse was the one acting on it. She thrived in it now, letting the hot emotion rush through her veins and out the barrel of her mounted gun as more bullets sprayed into the enemy convoy. The bullets dented the metal, embedding themselves in both glass and flesh. 

But it was all for the greater good, wasn’t it? 

Jesse watched as blood spilled from a cultist’s mouth in one of the pickups. Her eyes were wide with terror, then she glanced at the driver who looked at her with equal fear-ridden horror before her head bounced from the console. The driver grabbed the woman’s hand, so preoccupied with what seemed to be his friend’s death that the truck failed to make a proper turn on a bend, swerving and slamming into a tree. The hood was left smoking at the resistance convoy continued to make way. 

For the greater good.  
A clash of metal interrupted her thoughts, the truck beneath her swaying from the impact of another cultist pickup which had caught up to them. Jolting as much as the vehicle below her, she pulled her trigger just in time to stop the reaching of an arm into Gabriel’s open window. 

Gabriel finished the job, shooting the driver of the opposing truck. It swerved into the ditch, forgotten like the last.

They hadn’t been alone. Jesse felt herself cry, “Oh, come ON!” As a pair of ATVs pursued them from the bend, two cultists stacked on each, faces bright with the thrill of a chase. 

Jesse took aim at the wheels, pulling on the trigger with desperate strength. 

It produced only a loud click. In a heartbeat of terror, Jesse found the ammunition belt was bare, and the jingling of another in the backseat of the truck became painfully apparent. The only problem was, several barrels faced her from the back of the ATVs, poised and ready to fire. 

A peachy blur then bolten across the road, lunging into one of the drivers who fell like a ragdoll under the blur’s charge, then for his passenger, the attack so quick and clean it would have been impossible not to recognize. 

Winslow?

Another truck barreled from a nearby wood trail, Its carapace bright orange. It nearly veered into Jesse’s own as the last had, but slowed to roughly follow beside them, pushing Gabriel farther right on the road. The next thing noticed was the beast in the truck’s bed- Reuben raised his head, beady eyes looking gratefully at Jesse. 

Winslow leapt into the bed alongside the bear, mewling into the wind when he saw Jesse. Last but not least, Wink barked his greetings from the passenger seat, following it was Petra’s too-cheery holler. 

“I heard you needed backup!” 

As fast as her heart beat in her chest, it now beat stronger with a new warmth. She wasn’t alone. Not at all. 

“How’d you get here so fast?” Jesse yelled into the wind. Taking the opportunity, she knelt down and plunged her hand into the passenger seats, pulling out a new ammo belt. The golden belt was hooked in as she listened. 

“Getting a bear into a truck goes pretty quick when he’ll follow you to hell for half a donut!” Petra laughed. Eyes flickering between Jesse and the road, her tone became more serious. “I’ll handle everything on the ground, you worry about air reinforcements!” 

The warmth disappeared. “What?” 

“Jesse- This bitch’s got _everything_ on you! Cassie’s in trouble and she damn well knows it!” 

“ _Good._ ”

Jesse doubted her reply was heard, though she could hear Gabriel muffeledly thanking Petra for the help. Regardless, she aimed for the skies, stagnant blue and clear. As stagnant as her reply had been to match it, anxiety wriggled in her gut like a parasite. 

It was a few more hundred yards before their reinforcements arrived. The engines of bombers played like distant music, ominous on her horizon, then as they plunged their bullets danced to it, _riktiktiktik_ from stones and metal. Their pilots sang to it, Target sighted, crackling over the radios of all. Hawks had come for the serpents in Eden’s Garden. 

Jesse’s arms rattled as she opened fire in return, plunging equal amounts of ammunition into the belly of a diving beast as well as its wings, blinking and glaring like monstrous eyes. Bullets of returning fire fell dangerously close to Jesse herself, shattering the back windows of the truck. Most weren’t as lucky to cause damage, plunging into the dirt instead. From the corner of her eye, another bomber rose from a distant treeline, lights glinting under a dark sky. 

Fine. She had enough venom for three. 

The second one dived, looming dangerously close to the ground like a white eagle swooping for the kill. In a burst of instinct Jesse send a flurry of metal into the cockpit. In her blizzard the windshield turned to ice, blood splattering the delicate fractures before the plane veered to the right. 

It plunged into the treeline at an angle, razing oaks and conifers, exploding not ten feet away from Jesse’s car. Gabriel swerved away, but the resulting flames cared little for it, licking Jesse’s skin and knocking over the truck in a territorial push. Petra’d been smart enough to drive ahead, letting Wink and Winslow leap from the car to take out whatever ground forces waited for them in a flurry of tooth and claw. In the wake of the blast, Jesse could have swore Gabriel asked if she was alright. 

She didn’t answer. Whatever she said would be part truth and lie, stained by the blood dripped from glass shards. 

Mindlessly, she aimed upwards again, giving more shots to the other bomber which began to stray close. Courageous he was, diving for a kill at the sight of his fallen brethren, still burning in the brush a ways behind them. With a few more warning bullets driven into the wings, the pilot pulled upward careening into the night sky. Jesse’s radio crackled, “ _Fuck this, I’m outta here!_ ” 

Jesse held her finger over the trigger, barrel aimed at the hunter, but fired no more. She watched him go, higher and higher into the night until his place was a flicker against the stars. 

It's better to be a coward than a dead man, as much as Cassie’s people thirst for glory. 

Jesse recoiled when another engine screamed. 

A black shadow swooped over the approaching hillside, keening upwards into the sky with a vigor. The screaming dragon tilted slightly as it rose, adjusting on the wind as it strided forward, intent on its destination: beyond their reach. 

“Son of a bitch, that was Cassie’s plane! She’s getting away!” It wasn’t often to hear a pastor curse, she realized. 

The bulk of the Rose ranch, nearly a mansion it was, loomed ominously before them in the night, glaring at them with amber eyes as the their resistance truck skidded to a dusty stop in the driveway. They’d arrived just behind Petra, Just in time to see her leap from her own car and charge for the sparking flares of gunfire which began to blare from the house. A growl started in Reuben’s throat, mutating into a grotesque earth-shaking roar as he stood, growing in rage as the scent of sweat and blissed blood flooded his nostrils. He leapt onto the roof of the truck, denting it, lunging forward in a mighty charge for the closest members of the Project. Effectively following Petra’s lead. As Jesse glanced back at the start of the driveway to find that Wink and Winslow had caught up as well. 

Eden’s gate didn’t stand a chance. Nor had the hood of Petra’s truck. Jesse was sure she’d be hearing about that later, after the storm was over, after she’d beaten Cassie into a bloody pulp. 

The wrath began to creep into her fingers. The bloodlust rushed her. As doomed as those on the ground were, Cassie was _getting away._ Likely far away, where she’d shelter with Mevia or Harper like the cowards she was, continuing to torture the people of Holland Valley from a comfortable distance. Her sin was wrath, but so it seemed sloth was a prominent one as well, at least if she succeeded to escape. 

So jesse would have to do something about it. 

Jesse leapt from the truck, blood pumping hotter and hotter with the full intent of following Petra and Reuben’s footsteps, but Gabriel leaned out the driver’s side window, stopping her with a heavy hand placed on her shoulder. As comforting as his touch was, there was a white panic in his eyes. “Listen, I know helicopters are your thing, but- the only way you’re gonna stop her is playing her own game.” 

Gabriel just barely started to point for the airstrip before Jesse grasped his arm delicately. She set it down unknowingly as their eyes made contact. His, bright in the night, full of alarm. But her’s? Within them was the warmth of embers. 

“I know.” 

Jesse, slowly, backed away, though as she moved her steps began to bounce and legs began to itch once more. She looked back one last time, “Go back to the church. take care of them!” 

Jesse broke into a sprint, the shadows of her legs dancing in the moving headlights of Gabriel’s truck, retreating at her command. The roars of Reuben had overpowered most noises of gunfire, but bullets still flew, embedding themselves in the wood of the house.  
Jesse bolted in, avidly dodging the open fire of a cultist who was quickly downed by Winslow thereafter. The path of disaster left by Reuben and Petra was imminent; bodies lay scattered, some pelted with bullets and other's throats bearing dark wounds dribbling with blood. They’d trained for months only to be quick work of a bear. 

Jesse flinched when some piece of her mind immediately concluded, _A bear and a maiden fair._ , then _There’s another time for that, deputy._

Her maiden fair was still at work, huddled behind a crate which was starting to look more like swiss cheese. 

The situation was tricky; The remaining men had taken shelter within the open hangar, a tight space at best with the aircraft it contained, too condensed for Reuben to charge in without taking enough bullets to cast a cannonball and too cluttered and lived in to risk throwing in an explosive without destroying the ranch in its entirety, not to mention the plane that Jesse desperately needed. 

Not that Jesse wouldn’t be satisfied to see the damned house burn to ashes, to watch the fire dance in Petra’s eyes because she was damn well sure seeing this place burn would spark a flame in both their hearts. 

_Stop it. Stop thinking about that._

Without particularly thinking about the decision, Jesse grabbed the largest weapon in her line of sight, then sprayed as many bullets as she could into the hangar without looking before leaping back around the corner. From the edge of her vision, Petra gave her a shocked _look._ One of those looks that borderline questioned whether she was crazy or an idiot. 

“ _That’s the kind of behavior that’s gonna get you shot,_ ” Jesse heard in her head. 

She chose to ignore it. Instead, she peeked around the corner to find that she’d hit at least two of her targets. 

Once within safety, Jesse relaxed her shoulders. She took in a breath night air, heavy with humidity, the warmth of it weighing in her lungs. She closed her eyes and smouldering auroras danced, turning from yellow to orange to a hot red-magenta in a void of darkness. 

_Become wrath_

Then she thought of Lukas, screaming for mercy on the church floor. She thought of the bodies, the blood, the carnage, the innocence taken for nothing but tarnished scripture and the inferiority complexes of those who were perceived as baptists. She hated it. She hated Cassie. 

_Let it consume your body and your mind._

She wanted to watch her _suffer_. She would make these people bleed and scream like Cassie had with Lukas- These people weren’t human. They had chosen this. They chose to spread terror, to smile at the spilling of innocent blood, consider themselves heroes in the wake of burning towns and mothers torn away from children, consider the ripping and tearing of someone’s very skin as a sacrilegious ritual- every single one of them deserved to die. They didn’t deserve Eden. They didn't deserve hell, even. They deserved a void of infinite, silent nothingness. Numbness. That, and their sin. 

That was what Jesse felt now. She felt everything. She felt nothing. Gunshots fell on deaf ears. 

“Jesse!” 

She would tear out Cassie’s rotten heart and watch her _burn._

“JESSE! You’re clear!” Petra’s hand enclosed on her wrist like a snack, pulling her back into reality, as well as a few steps. “Godammit, you’re a mess- Get in the plane while you have the chance, or we’re never gonna see Cassie again.” 

Jesse fazed between understanding, some of Petra’s words lacking in meaning to her as she surveyed the damages. Jesse was on the stairs to the attic compartments of the hangar. Below her was a woman with more stab wounds than Jesse was able to count in the precious time she’d wasted in aberration. 

Petra looked up at her, those dark brown eyes astonishingly calm. Her stature spoke otherwise, rigid with a pistol hanging in the other hand like a ripe fruit heavy on its branch.

“Come on, what are you waiting for?” 

They were in the eye of the storm. All was chaos, but not here, not now- It allowed Jesse to notice the beating of her own heart, pounding like war drums in her aching chest, beetling in the absence of audible chaos. As the eye of the storm was calm, the turmoil surrounding it was imminent, gaining on them like a beast in the hunt. Jesse felt it inside as she did her wrath, beginning to flicker in distress. 

With little reaction to Petra’s words themselves, Jesse leapt into action, lurching up and hopping over the stair railing for the plane. It had a few dents, one or two bullet holes, but the aircraft was still whole. Jesse was already crawling onto the wing like a frightened spider before Petra grabbed her again, softer than before. 

She was giving her that _look_. That stupid look that made her so endearing, topped with concern pooling in her eyes. Her grip grew tighter. “Jesse.” 

She didn’t even have to say more than that. 

And Jesse, the wrathful, lovestruck disaster she was, swallowed the “I love you” that yearned desperately to be born. She just nodded, embers flaring, quickly clambering into the cockpit. 

The plane shifted, Jesse looked behind her to see Petra climbing onto the wing, very clearly intent to seat herself in the passenger seat. She always had to have Jesse’s back, and this way, she’d be adjacent to her. A parachute was strapped to her back, another one under her arm. 

Jesse stopped her. She raised a palm to her, and immediately upon seeing it Petra froze like a lycan to silver. Jesse’s words had to have stung just as much. 

“Stay, Petra. this is my fight.” 

The mettle Petra had so valiantly displayed only moments before was diminished. For reasons unclear in the midst of her nature, Petra heeded those words, her own fingers which had been reaching for the passenger’s seat curling dismissively as she slid from the wing. For a moment more those curled fingers rested on it, almost ready to push. Instead, she set down the parachute in her grip, sliding it across the wing to Jesse. 

“Good luck.” 

The plane’s engine roared to life, front propellers beginning rapid turns. The wing sipped from Petra’s fingers as it cruised forward emerging into the night from the glowing hangar, but still she followed it, chasing after it, seeing her beloved off to war. 

Jesse didn’t even turn on the runway. The plane jutted forward in a burst of speed, heading straight for the treeline ahead, rising in the air but twisting as the right wing’s end hit a crate petra had been sheltering behind minutes before. Hinder her as it did, she still twisted upward, rising impossibly. Both their hearts beat with terror, but still she rose, up and up into the darkened sky. 

“Please don’t die.” she whispered, shadow long in the night. 

The engine’s rumbling faded, leery crickets yet to fill the void with song after an evening of violence, under a sky with no stars. The night had become dark, but in a distant flash Petra could recognize the knotted clusters of a storm. 

Then, the scent of the river and the countryside was replaced with that of smoke.


End file.
